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Greening Bedales

Deep in the soul of Bedales lies an attachment to nature - which the school has reaffirmed by launching the 'Greening Bedales' initiative.

In 1900, J H Badley moved his fledgling school from Haywards Heath to Steephurst Farm in rural Hampshire because he wanted his students to grow up surrounded by natural beauty and pure air. The setting also allowed him to educate 'Head, Hand, Heart' - blending practical work with intellectual and spiritual development.

In the early years, students built the roadways through the 150-acre estate, levelled the playing fields and helped with work on the surrounding farmland; the school Chronicle carefully recorded the state of the carrot harvest and the tally of eggs laid by the hens.

Outdoor Work is still transforming the Bedales landscape. Students have planted miles of hedgerows. They have dug lakes, usually as a 'whole-school effort' over an autumn weekend. And they have built wood-frame barns, in a direct link to the Arts & Crafts movement that was at its peak when Bedales was founded. 

In its Memorial Library, one of the last great Arts & Crafts buildings in the country (by Ernest Gimson, in 1921), Bedales has a standing reminder of the movement's key beliefs in truth to nature, truth to natural materials and truth to hand-craftsmanship.

No wonder, then, that Bedales has had a formal policy on care of the environment for more than a decade - or that it is now carrying out a radical renewal of its commitment.

A green philosophy should permeate everything we do. Bedales, by virtue of its ethos, and its history of progressive thinking, should be a leader among eco-friendly schools. Our initial aim is to become carbon-neutral. We could do it the easy way, by contributing to a carbon-offset fund, but this would miss the point.

Going green is highly fashionable, but going green seriously is not a fad: it is a major long-term commitment. We have taken the best available advice, and this is what it tells us. Altogether we are taking a year to produce a comprehensive plan for greening Bedales. Putting the plan into action - insulating all our older buildings to the highest standards, for instance - could take ten or fifteen years after that. We are in this for the long term.

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